The UK is a nation of -porkers- discuss

development

Going back to Alea's comment about snacking. From time to time I take my 5 year old granddaughter to the cinema and I'm amazed at the gargantuan popcorn/hot dogs/fizzy drinks that people buy their children to take into the cinema with them and the state of the auditorium after these mega grazing sessions. I'm afraid I steadfastly refuse to buy any of these overpriced items. When did going to the cinema become synonymous with this manner of consumption, the size of some of the containers for these various snacks are similar to buckets. An army of cleaners are dispatched between performances to deal with the debris. If I remember rightly a lady with a tray of small ice creams came round in the interval when I was a child and you would have considered yourself lucky to get one of those.

I think one of the reasons the film sound in cinemas is so loud nowadays is to cover all the popcorn-munching noises. Hey ho.

I bought popcorn for the GSs (7&10) when I took them to the cinema last week. However, they said that it wasn't the same as it was last time and decided that they didn't like it. They did take their rubbish out with them and put it in the bin. I really detest the smell of popcorn that permeates the cinema - oh, the sacrifices we make for our GC!

Interesting point Hilda.

School dinners were deemed to be a healthier option than packed lunches... that of course depended on the packed lunch. They still have lots of puddings though, even if they are slightly healthier recipes than ordinary puddings.

I have been told the children eat too many vegetables in their packed lunch. and this in a supposedly healthy eating school. And the new advice is seven and preferably ten portions per day. (mainly veg) Thankfully I can now hoik bosoms and say it is on medical advice at least in one child's case

I have problems with diet. I eat a really healthy diet... then throw in junk food on top due to stress and comfort eating. Trying really hard to break the link with food and comfort for the children. Also it is very difficult to get the balance right. It would not be helpful to ban them from food and make it more appealing when they are teenagers and have no self control.

My parents were very much limiting treat food and I went a bit overboard as a teenager. They also were eat everything on your plate and now I feel extrmemly guilty if I stop when I am full. I am trying to praise the children for stopping when they are full. The school had an eat everything in your lunch box policy, which is against the government guidelines.

My dad had issues with food as he had his rations taken as a child and given to his older siblings who were working. He has passed some of these on to me. I am trying to pass fewer issues onto the children. Dd seems to be sensible. Ds is showing signs of being aware of the issue too.

all you can do is your best though.

Oh thatbags....don't get me started on eating at the cinema. I can appreciate the odd ice-cream as a treat half way through a big film....but people walking in at the beginning with enough food to feed an army seems a totally alien concept to me. Its as if people cannot go for more than two hours without eating....what's wrong with feeling hungry and then enjoying a proper meal or having your meal first? Hey ho!

We tend to only go to cinemas where they don't sell popcorn. Strange thing is that, if you put that amount of popcorn in front of someone anywhere else and told them they HAD to eat it, they probably couldn't. I suppose it originated in America [something I hadn't thought about before]. I do take sucky sweets with me, though [the only time I ever eat them] in case I get a tickley throat.

Today I took DGSs swimming. I have never before noticed so many fat (and I mean really obese not just 'big boned') young women with their children. When I was a young mum I was continuously running about looking after my brood and breast feeding the baby. Weighed in at 7st when I was 35! How do these girls manage to carry so much weight when they have young children? Many of these girls could hardly walk they were carrying so much flab. It surely must be due to eating too much calorific food.

Cinemas make their money from the mark up on popcorn etc.
I find a bucket of popcorn ridiculous and all you need is a small cone of paper. It is the same with the sweets- far, far, too many. I have never bought any of it.
I used to take a small packet of sweets with me when the children were young and a small carton of drink. It stopped any fuss as I was able to march past saying 'I have brought some with us'. Cinemas of course don't like it. However they don't search handbags!
Last time we were on holiday in Cornwall, in self catering, we bought pizza one night and were asked if we wanted chips with it! When I expressed amazement that you could possibly want chips with pizza I was told that most people requested it.

ooohhh. I never thought about their mark ups on sweets and popcorn being where they make a lot of money.

Cinema popcorn....I wonder if its improved on what I used to see 15 years ago. In Oxford, I worked in a shop very near the cinema on Magdalene Street. Once or twice a week early in the morning (before the traffic wardens were about) a large lorry would roll up and they would unload what I can only describe as clear bin bags full of 'popped' Pop corn. This was later transferred into the illuminated and heated pop corn machine and presented rather theatrically as freshly 'popped'. I say no more.

I must be the only one here who likes cinema popcorn. We always have some when we go to the cinema but I do think it is unnecessary for them to fill such large containers until they are overflowing - it makes so much mess.

I read a while back that if cinemas didn't sell the very overpriced food, drink, sweets and ice cream they could not survive on just ticket sales.

No, Eleothan, I love it too. It's impressive how quickly DH and I can hoover up a big bucketful between us when we settle down at the pictures.

I read somewhere that 80% of a cinema's profit is made from the popcorn/drinks/sweets etc.

I understand that cinemas have to make money in other ways and I would certainly hate them to disappear they are still a good form of entertainment particularly on a rainy day. I just find some of the containers, particularly for popcorn, very, very large. I just don't think we had such "super sizing" a good few years ago, I perceive the size of what are after all snacks, as another trend that has drifted over from America and boy do they like their portions BIG over on the other side of the pond. Nations that adopt the American approach to food invariably end up with a percentage of their citizens obese.

If I'm not at a children's performance and have gone to see a film I'm particularly interested in, I do find the sounds that can emanate from grazers in the immediate vicinity distracting on occasions. Like others I took small quantities of sweets for my own children when they were young and granddaugther loves to snack on cheese and crackers and will always expect me to produce my small plastic container with these whenever we go out together for longer periods. I usually include a small packet of chocolate buttons which she is very happy with, she gave up pestering me for popcorn a while back, she now knows it's futile!

I hope people are watching Dr Aseem Malhotra on BBC Breakfast this morning explaining why all calories are not the same and that it is the quality of the food that counts.
This article explains it quite well too.
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/stop-counting-calories-and-start-a-highfat-mediterraneanstyle-diet-health-experts-urge-10473085.html?icn=puff-2

I've just read that a cinema popcorn box contains as many calories as a 3 course meal of garlic bread, pizza and tiramisu! I knew, obviously, that it would be more than the air-popped variety, but really, I am . I may have to rethink my film watching habits.

We don't often go to the cinema so I'm not too worried about the occasional splurge.

OMG!!! Over the last few days GS age 10 has had at least two sugar laden bottled drinks a day! And his older bruv is on the diet Coke - with the dreaded sweeteners!

[sharp intake of the Gransnet collective breath]

It's not too late to have their stomachs pumped!

How sad to read that Jamie Oliver says he failed on healthy eating for schools as 'eating well is a middle-class concept' ! tragic really.

Good on you jinglebellsfrocks - I hope you're responsible for the horrors your grandson has enjoyed.

granjura - please just relax a bit on the criticising we poor, over eating, over drinking Brits. Jamie is an absolute gem and he may well be right that 'eating well is a middle class concept' but tragic? That's a bit extreme. Tragic is the plane that came down at the weekend, it's the shooting of the tv interviewer, her interviewee and camera man, it's the plight of the refugees from Syria.

I'm not seeking to minimise the importance of continuing to encourage all of us to do our best on the healthy eating/not over drinking/excercise regularly front. But honestly I do feel enough is enough

Well put, iam. I was just going to put "tragic? Bollocks" but I thought I'd better not.

Good call not to post 'bollocks' bags some people might not like it.

She don't care.